Rise of the Dunamy (23 page)

45

T
he sky was a beautiful cascade of purple, grey, and white clouds and it was clear that a spring storm was making its way towards the city. Sofia made her way towards work against the steady wind that accompanied the dark sheet of rain soaked clouds that covered the sky in the distance. It was actually Sofia’s favorite climate; the moments right before a storm arrived. Regardless what her feelings about the weather, nothing was going to pull her out of the trance she was in. A sharp pain was unrelenting inside her stomach as she made her way towards the office. She had no idea how she was going to handle the situation with Lucian. At each intersection Sofia intentionally slowed down so that she was forced to wait for the light to change. She stopped for every pedestrian that so much as looked like they wanted to cross the street. Sofia did anything and everything that she could to slow her progression towards the precinct, but she was there before she knew it. Pulling into a spot as far from the doors as possible, Sofia slowly slid off the upholstered seat and eased toward the doors of the precinct.

It felt like a different place as she walked into that building. Before this week, she had never gone more than twelve hours without at least entering the building. The fact that two days had passed and she had not so much as seen it made her feel as if she had been in a different world entirely. The same feelings had occurred to her the week before when she and Lucian had spent both of her days off together, but this was very different. She slowly approached the steps and made her way in to the building. As she approached her desk, Sofia felt the pangs of anxiety like needles in her gut.

“Didn’t expect to see you today.” Bishop called out as Sofia rounded the corner. “Figured we wouldn’t see much out of you ‘til tomorrow.” Sofia looked at him, puzzled by his comments. “Or are you guys meeting here today?” Bishop thought it kind of him to keep Lucian’s name out of the conversation as he gave Sofia a hard time. Sofia, still puzzled refrained from answering. Instead, she attempted to fake a smile and did her best to control her nerves enough to come across as if nothing was wrong. Casually making her way over to her desk, Sofia began perusing the contents of her drawer as she attempted to collect her thoughts. Sensing something was strange about her unusual looks when he mentioned her being there, Bishop continued to press on.

“It’s Thursday, kid. You’re off today.” Sofia was shocked, but did all she could to hide how surprised she was at that information.

“Yeah, I know…I just needed to do something real quick, then I’m out.” She replied.

“Why you bein’ all weird?”

“I’m not. I just have to do something.” She clamored around some more in her desk drawer as she tried to think of something to get to justify having stopped in.

“Have you seen Lucian today?” She asked, not wanting to run into him if he was there. Bishop, still unconvinced that something wasn’t wrong with Sofia, moved over to her desk to have a more private conversation. Although they had been at odds lately, he was still very protective of Sofia and wanted to make sure she was okay. Seeing that he was approaching, Sofia tilted her head so that her long black hair fell over her shoulder and covered the bruising that had occurred on her neck. She had applied some makeup to the bruising, but still felt very self-conscious about it.

“Hey.” Bishop urged quietly. “You sure you’re alright? You seem a little off.”

“I’m good. Has Lucian been in?” She asked, keeping her head down to keep from looking at Bishop.

“Did somethin’ happen with you guys?”

“No. Have you seen him?” Bishop gently placed his hand on Sofia’s shoulder. The soft touch was just enough to cause Sofia to jerk away from him in surprise and fear; she knew it to be a typical reaction for assaulted woman. Bishop also recognized the reaction.

“What happened?” Bishop demanded as softly as he could. Not wanting Bishop to get involved just yet, Sofia quickly softened and smiled as normally as she could manage.

“Nothing. You just surprised me. I guess I was kind of zoned in.” Bishop continued to look her over for a second before answering her question.

“Yeah, I saw him for a second when I came in but he was headed out. Said he had to go take care of something and that he would be gone most of the day. He left something on your desk.” Looking down, Sofia noticed a case folder lying there that she had never seen before. A wave of relief washed over her as she realized she had another day to think of what her next move would be, as well as the fact that she wasn’t going to run into Lucian.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” Sofia asked Bishop, now much more relaxed than before.

“Eh, where else am I gonna go? Plus, all the stuff from yesterday.”

“What do you mean?”

“Our boys hit again last night. They took out a whole group of guys in Southside. Big mess.” Sofia’s heart jumped. “Took out some pretty bad dudes. Looks like they were pretty well known in the area. All of ‘em had priors. Some home invasions, armed robbery, one particularly rapey fella.” Bishop tossed the pictures of the victims onto her desk. Sofia’s hands began to shake uncontrollably as Spit’s lifeless face looked up at her. Quickly, she slipped her hands beneath her desk in an effort to conceal her quivering.

“Just another ‘attack’ that makes me wanna stop looking for these guys.” He mumbled beneath his breath.

“Is this it?” She asked in a puzzled tone. Bishop looked at her with a confused face. “”Isn’t that enou…..You know what…I forgot you hadn’t called in to check. Yeah, there was actually a group the night before, too. Not even far from here. Over towards the train station.” He flipped through the pictures he had thrown on to her desk, locating a group of pictures.” Sofia didn’t recognize the faces as well as she had the others. She knew it was the men that had ambushed her and Lucian, but never really made a point of looking at any of their faces during the attack. She had been too concerned for Lucian.

“Yeah. I tried to call you, but your phone was dead. What, you stopped checkin’ your messages on your days off, now?” Sofia declined to answer.

“Didn’t happen to drop his business card did he?” Sofia tried her best to act normal as she pretended to scan the picture of one of the men while keeping her frantic hands out of sight.

“He who?” Bishop replied quickly.

Sofia realized that that was the first time in months that she had referred to the killer as an individual person.

“Do what?” She asked as she attempted to rebound from the uncharacteristic stumble. “Oh, right. I meant they. The killers, they didn’t leave a card did they?”

“Sounds like you got someone in particular on your mind.” He said jokingly, having no idea how right he was.

“Maybe so.” She continued to play along as if she was just in a daze. She picked up the case file that Lucian had left on her desk and began to leaf through it, turning her back to Bishop to hide the shaking that was now evident as she held the folder open. “So, nothing out of the ordinary at the scene?” She questioned as she perused the file.

“I didn’t notice anything, but I don’t imagine my word is enough for you. You got time to head over there?” Sofia had stopped listening to his response before he had begun. The case file that Lucian had left on her desk was that of a very large man with a very small rap sheet.

Quintin Marks had been arrested one time several years before for domestic dispute. He was released and had not been entered into the system again since. Quintin was 6’7”, 290 pounds, and every bit of it muscle. He looked to be a skinhead but had no tattoos signifying affiliation and was not suspected of being connected with any of the local gangs. Sofia knew exactly what this folder meant and she knew that she had to stop it.

“Umm, you know what, I dont.” She said, picking up the case file and pictures Bishop had thrown onto her desk to mask the fact that she was also taking the folder that Lucian left for her. “We can look at it tomorrow.” She told Bishop as she grabbed the keys to her car.

“Okay.” Bishop replied with a concerned look on his face. No matter what she was saying, he couldn’t shake the feeling that she was hiding something.

“Thank you for the concern, but it really is nothing.” She said, now much more capable of giving him a genuine smile.

“Whatever.” Bishop replied as he began to make his way towards a group of officers that were congregating for some casual office chatter.

46

A
s she jumped into the car, Sofia used the onboard computer to find Quintin’s last known address. With a soft hum, the computer kicked into action and pulled up the address just as Sofia pulled away from the curb. Even though she wasn’t sure what she would do when she got there, she knew she had to reach this man before Lucian was able to do him any harm. She felt recharged as she cruised down the streets dodging the idiotic pedestrians that continually stepped blindly out into the street. Tracking Lucian allowed Sofia to successfully put all of the concerns that she had been dealing with out of her head for the time. She was just doing police work, and it felt great. This is what she lived for. How could she have ever doubted that this was what she wanted in life? She knew then that she had been deliberating over something that was truly not even an issue. She could never jeopardize what she had in her career. She told herself that love could come around again between her and another person, but the passion that she had for her job would never come around in another career.

As she pulled up to Quintin’s complex, she turned the car off and listened for signs of a disturbance. There was nothing but the sound of airplanes coming in to land at the nearby airport and the occasional foreboding caw of the crows mounted on the surrounding power lines. The area was all but abandoned. Most of the surrounding businesses were boarded up and covered in graffiti. Nearly all of the apartment complexes were in the same condition. There were several condemned structures on the block, but in the middle stood an apartment complex that appeared to be inhabited and in decent condition. Sofia took one last opportunity to listen for anything out of the ordinary before opening the car door, but heard nothing. As she exited the car, she took the picture that had been clipped to the inside of the front flap of the folder Lucian had left her so that she could show it around in the event that he was not home. As she removed the picture, she took another look at him, taking note of how large he appeared to be. Before entering the building, Sofia took a second to check her weapon and ensure that she had a fresh clip in the gun. She realized how lax she had become in her preparation for such events since her attacks recently. Everything on her gun checked out and Sofia headed into the complex.

Sofia reached the apartment number that she had found in Quintin’s file and knocked at the door, looking up and down the hall as she waited. The hallway was filthy and there were holes in the sheetrock everywhere. The hall smelled like a mixture of dirt and mildew. A woman down the hall was picking up some laundry that had fallen out of her basket.

“Do you need a hand?” Sofia asked the woman. Startled, the woman looked up at her and glanced quickly at the door that Sofia was standing in front of. She frantically grabbed remaining articles from the floor and nearly knocked her own door over as she ran into her apartment, slamming the door closed behind her. Confused, Sofia turned her attention back to the door and knocked again.

“Mr. Marks, are you there? I have some information I need to give to you. I believe you may be in danger.” She realized that if he were inside, he was probably laughing at her for thinking that he could be in any danger. From his picture, she had gotten the feeling that he had never lost a fight, or felt threatened in any way in his entire life. He just had that look about him. She knocked again.

“Mr. Marks. Are you there?” Still no answer. She listened for any sounds to indicate that he might be inside, but heard nothing. Sofia made her way down to the door that the woman had entered with the laundry basket. Knocking lightly on the door, she called out “Ma’am, can I talk to you for a second about the man that lives down the hall?” An angry, hushed voice came from behind the door, “No, get the hell out of here!”

“Ma’am, I think he may be in trouble. Is there any way that you can tell me where I can find him? It’s really urgent that I get to him right away.”

“Keep your damn voice down! You’re a cop, you figure it out! He can handle himself just fine if he’s in trouble, and if not, even better! Now you gotta go lady, I’m serious!” The tone of the woman’s voice was becoming less angry and more insisting and frightened.

“Can you at least tell….”

“Can’t you hear woman? NO! Now get away from my door.” She was now fully panicked. Knowing a lost cause when she heard one, Sofia gave up and backed away from the door. “I’m sorry to have bothered you ma’am. I’m leaving now. No one saw me talking to you.”

Sofia made her way around the complex showing the picture and asking about Quintin and she was met with nearly the exact same response from every person that she came across. Each person that saw the picture had the same look of terror on their face when she would show it to them and each one made it clear that she needed to give up and get out of the complex, but most of all they just wanted her to get away from them before someone saw them. Most then retreated back into their apartments making sure to lock a series of locks behind them. After having tried to speak with every available tenant in the complex, she decided to take her investigation to the street.

Sofia made her way through the dilapidated neighborhood looking for any sign of life in hopes of finding Quintin in time. She was dealing with a very limited pool of potential acquaintances due to the fact that hardly any of the buildings were inhabitable.

47

F
inally, Sofia came across a small house that appeared to be lived in. The little home didn’t appear to fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. While it was the slightest bit run down, it was nowhere near the state of disrepair everything else was in. There was some semblance of a maintained lawn surrounded by an old wrought iron fence, as well as some hanging baskets filled with various flowers on the porch. Years of wear were obvious on the wooden siding of the house, and the old white paint was chipping away. Sofia opened the squeaky metal gate and made her way up the little path to the porch. She knocked on the door and was quickly greeted by a very jolly little woman.

“Hi there honey! Don’t see many girls as pretty as you around here. What can I do for ya?” The woman’s grin spread from one ear to the other.

“Well ma’am..” She began.

“Oh no ma’am. You call me Mama.” She interjected, reaching out and touching Sofia’s hand gently.

The polite greeting was a welcome change from the conversations she had already had that day. “Alright, Mama.” She replied with a smile. “I’m looking for a man that I think is in trouble and I can’t seem to get an answer out of anyone.” Sofia pulled the picture from her pocket. Mama took a quick look at the picture and her big warm smile diminished. She began nodding her head, “Oh baby girl, you don’t need to mess wit’ dat man. If he’s in trouble, I suggest you leave ‘em to it. Lord knows it’s gotta catch him sometime.”

“Please, Mama. Can you just tell me a little about him so that I can find him?” Mama looked up at her for a second, and breathed deeply, “Well if I’m gonna tell ya, you best get in here so no one sees me talking to the police.” Sofia quickly stepped into the house.

“I didn’t say I was with the police, Mama.” Mama walked past Sofia laughing. “Baby, Mama’s been around a long time. You ain’t gotta tell me a whole lot for me to size you up.”

Everything about Mama’s house, yard, and demeanor was a complete surprise. Given the conditions of the area, it wasn’t at all what it should have been. It was a welcome oasis in the deserted and rundown little town. The inside was as well-kept as the outside and had a wonderful “old” smell to it that was another welcome change from the filthy conditions in the apartment complex. There were some obvious signs of age, what with the creaking floor, old fashioned furniture, and antique radio in the corner. But, for the most part, it was just a lovely little home.

“Would you like some tea, sweetie?”

“No, thank you.” Sofia stated as she stepped onto the linoleum of the dining room floor. “I need to get going pretty quickly, I think Mr. Marks could be in danger.”

“Oh, honey. Once I tell you about that man, I don’t think you’re gonna be too worried about finding him. He’s a bad man, baby. Done some bad things to folks ‘roun here. Terrible things.” Mama pulled out a little wooden chair from her dining room table and indicated for Sofia to sit down as she moved into the kitchen to make them both some tea.

“We don’t have any record of him having caused any trouble. At least nothing for quite some time.”

“I don’t suppose you would. I even know the time you’re talkin about. See, back then this neighborhood was in a little better way than it is now. Now, I ain’t sayin it was ever in the greatest condition, but it was much betta’ than it is now. Most of the shops was still open and them apartments was full and the buildin’s was taken care of. Back then, that man had just moved to the area an he wasn’ all that well known. Well, it didn’ take long for him to make a name fuh himself. He wasn’ a bad lookin’ man, and bein as big as he is, it didn’ take long fuh the ladies ‘roun here to take notice. Once he started getting his share of attention, it didn’ take long fuh him to start takin’ his pick an treatin’ each one of em howeva he please. Anyway, one of em decided she wasn’ interested in him no mo, an he didn’ take to that notion. He beat that girl up real good. She was a tough one though, not scared like the rest of em. Went straight to the police and had him locked up. Then, when he got back from lock up, he showed evabody what he would really do to someone when he was mad. I think he only let her live so that we could see what he had done to her. He made sure that poor girl made her way around the neighborhood plenty for the next few days. She was bad off baby, worse than I eva seen. After a few days of paradin her beaten body around, we just didn’ see her no more. No one saw anything or heard anything, but we ain’t dumb. We all know what he done. After that, he started terrorizin’ everyone. He kep’ right on takin’ advantage of all the girls. They tried to fight him, but he was just too strong. A few of ‘em ended up pregnant, but he didn’ let that last long. The boys around here tried to stop him,” Mama’s voiced trailed off and her gaze became blank. She sat in silence for a few seconds. “He’s just so strong.” She spoke, her voice barely a whisper.

Sofia had to shake herself to return to the present. Mama’s story had enveloped her. She quickly scanned the end of the story in her mind before asking, “Did you see something, Mama?” She had seen that look too many times on the faces of victims and witnesses to let the moment pass without asking her. Mama also needed a moment to snap out of her dazed state. “Oh, Mama’s seen plenty, baby. But we ain’t gonna get into that cause I’d never say it on the stand and it won’t do you no good to hear it.” She patted Sofia’s hand gently before shuffling back into the kitchen, returning with the glass jug of tea to refill their glasses. “Anyways, he started shakin’ down all the shops for every dime they made. Made it impossible for ‘em to operate. That fool didn’t even leave them enough money to keep their doors open. Since no one was about to stand up to him, most just did whatever they could to shut down and get out. The landlords of the apartments is too scared to come around, and most of ‘em don’t care anyway. So everything just kinda fell apart and since he didn’t have the shops to spend his time terrorizing, things just got worse for people.”

“Oh sugar.” She said softly as she spilled some tea on the table. She returned to the kitchen again to get a rag to clean the mess. “So you can see why I say I don’t care if that man is in trouble. I dream of the day when this place is free of him. He’s done so much damage we may never be the same as we were, but with him gone, their might be chance for this to become a reasonable place to live again. People around here will never be the same, but we deserve some peace.”

“I agree, Mama. But I have to do everything that I can to try and keep this from happening. I can try and do more for your neighborhood now that I know these things. I can even begin to build a case against Quintin so I can get him away from here, but first I have to try and stop the man that is after him. Can you at least tell me where I could find him?”

Mama sighed as she rung the washcloth out in the sink. “I can tell you a good person, baby; Lord knows I can. But you can’t help us. Not as long as he’s alive. I can’t do it, baby. I can’t tell you anything about him, and if I could, I wouldn’t.”

Sofia glanced at the clock on the wall. Mama had delayed her long enough, and she didn’t look like she was going to give Sofia any useful information. In a last ditch effort, Sofia changed course from her usual “befriending” style of questioning. “I would never say a word, Mama but what if someone saw me come in here and they found out I was trying to help Quintin. Say he does get away from the man that I’m trying to stop and he finds out that you didn’t help me find him so that I could help him. If what you say is true, and I can’t help the people around here, what’s going to happen?” Sofia couldn’t believe that she was resorting to such tactics to get information from someone, especially someone who had been so nice and inviting to her. She had never pressed someone in this manner for information, but she had to stop Lucian.

Mama didn’t even look up from her dishes as she spoke. “I guess I was wrong about you. I’da never figured you for a person that would resort to threats to get what you wanted.”

Sofia was ashamed, “Mama, I’m sor…”

“Naw. You done said it. Don’t try an’ take it back now. Fact is, I don’t know what that man does. He rarely leaves the neighborhood though. If you haven’t seen him yet, you’re probably headed in the right direction.”

“I haven’t been able to get anyone to talk to me. What if he was hiding out in an apartment?”

“That man don’t hide from no one. If you passed those places and didn’t hear any commotion, you probably ain’t missed him.” Mama left her dishes and moved towards the door. “Now, I guess you betta’ get goin.” As she left the house, Sofia turned back “I promise I will do everything I can to get him off of the streets Mama. I just have to do this. It’s much more important than you know that I stop the man that is after him.”

“To you maybe. But not from where I’m standin’.” As Mama began closing the door, something occurred to Sofia. “Mama, why hasn’t he done to you what he’s done to everyone else?” Mama couldn’t meet Sofia’s eyes as she closed the door.

As the door shut, Sofia turned and faced the road. She gazed out into the overgrown soccer field across the street as she searched her thoughts for her next move. As she stood there debating which direction to go, she wondered to herself “Should I even care? What will stopping Lucian this one time prove? Even if she found Quintin before Lucian, she would never be able to make any charges stick to him. He would continue to terrorize the people in the area and Lucian would move on to the next victim. She couldn’t spend the rest of her career trying to stop him. Even if she did want to stop him, could she? As she debated herself on what came next, she heard something that drew her attention from her thoughts. She wasn’t sure what the sound was, but it was loud enough to draw her from her daze. The sound reverberated off of the abandoned buildings for a moment before disintegrating into the atmosphere. Pausing momentarily, she waited for the sound to return so she could make sure it hadn’t been thunder Sofia looked around to see if there was a reaction from any of the local tenants, but no one so much as came to the window. Not even Mama peeked out to see what the commotion was. Sofia didn’t have to wait long for the sound to happen again. This one was accompanied by a second loud clap, followed by the sound of crumbling rocks. That was enough to clarify that it hadn’t been thunder, and Sofia sprang into action.